Violence in Nigeria

Postscript: The next challenge:
Statistics as a tool for human security
From the North to the South and the West to the East, many rural LGAs in Nigeria
experience fatal incidents that are ignored by the media … and by the security
forces. In remote parts of Borno, Yobe, and Adamawa states, however, the Boko
Haram insurgency has shown how dangerous such a vacuum can be. Today, the
science of maintaining law and order is still in its infancy in Nigeria. The army
does not publish records of its operations, and the police make no use of statistics
to improve their performance. Moreover, citizens rarely request the release of
such data.
In addition, Nigerian readers seldom find comments on the number of homicides
nationwide or the body count of the Boko Haram crisis in the North-East,
except for a few cases on the spot, such as the controversy over the death toll of
another massacre in Baga, in January 2015. Unlike South Africa, crime statistics
are not discussed in the media or in Parliament. Police press conferences sometimes
provide small amounts of information, but figures are inconsistent and
many analysts rely on their own perceptions without trying to substantiate their
findings with hard facts. Among the general public, there are simply no debates
on the methodology, the use, and the utility of statistics on violence.
This book represents an innovation: it is the first to introduce a discussion on
such issues in a coherent manner, relying on a database that fills the lacunae in
data from the security forces. The selection of chapters presented clearly demonstrates
that, despite many challenges in the most populated country in Africa, it is
quite possible to use statistics to improve our analysis of Nigeria. Indeed, it also
confirms that it is necessary to do so in order to avoid stereotypes and the bias of
emotional reactions to violence. Finally, it shows that combining qualitative and
quantitative approaches is the best way to refine our understanding of human security.